Klaus Schwarzfischer zeigt, wie wichtig es ist, mit dem einfachsten Fall einer ästhetischen Erfahrung zu beginnen. Die individuell-kognitiven Perspektiven und die sozial-kommunikativen Prozesse werden in einer einheitlichen Theorie analysierbar. Die Evolution wird dabei ebenso berücksichtigt wie neurobiologische Aspekte. Interdisziplinär verständlich und ausführlich illustriert werden die Basis-Konzepte dargestellt. Schritt für Schritt nachvollziehbar werden auch komplexere Anwendungen entwickelt: Von der Gestalt zur Gestaltung. Was genau ist eine ästhetische Erfahrung? Welcher biologische Mechanismus liegt jeder ästhetischen Erfahrung zugrunde? Warum haben sich ästhetische Erfahrungen aus (...) evolutionärer Perspektive durchgesetzt? Haben nur Menschen ästhetische Erfahrungen? Was ist der Gültigkeitsbereich ästhetischer Beobachtungen? (Was alles kann eine ästhetische Erfahrung auslösen?) Warum sind Destruktion und Provokation sowie Ironie und Humor auch ästhetische Phänomene? Wie können die „Gestalt-Gesetze“ als Symmetrien (d.h. als Invarianzen) interpretiert werden, um so mit Semiotik und Systemtheorie kompatibel zu werden? (shrink)

A search for traces of the voice before the phonograph, reconstructing a series of ancient soundscapes from Aristotle to Augustine. Long before the invention of musical notation, and long before that of the phonograph, the written word was unrivaled as a medium of the human voice. In The Ancient Phonograph, Shane Butler searches for traces of voices before Edison, reconstructing a series of ancient soundscapes from Aristotle to Augustine. Here the real voices of tragic actors, ambitious orators, and singing emperors (...) blend with the imagined voices of lovesick nymphs, tormented heroes, and angry gods. The resonant world we encounter in ancient sources is at first unfamiliar, populated by texts that speak and sing, often with no clear difference between the two. But Butler discovers a commonality that invites a deeper understanding of why voices mattered then and why they have mattered since. With later examples that range from Mozart to Jimi Hendrix, Butler offers an ambitious attempt to rethink the voice—as an anatomical presence, a conceptual category, and a source of pleasure and wonder. He carefully and critically assesses the strengths and limits of recent theoretical approaches to the voice by Adriana Cavarero and Mladen Dolar and makes a rich and provocative range of ancient material available for the first time. The Ancient Phonograph will appeal not only to classicists and to voice theorists but to anyone with an interest in the verbal arts—literature, oratory, song—and the nature of aesthetic experience. (shrink)

I demonstrate that analogies, both explicit and implicit, between Wittgenstein’s discussions of rituals, aesthetics, and aspect-perception, have important payoffs in terms of understanding his notion of a “surveyable representation” (übersichtliche Darstellung) as it applies to phenomena that are not exclusively grammatical in nature. In particular, I argue that a surveyable representation of certain anthropological and aesthetic facts allows us to see, qua form of aspect-perception, internal relations and formal connections, so that the inner nature of a ritual or the (...) solution of an aesthetic puzzle is exhibited. This particular form of seeing both explains why Wittgenstein thought that hypothetical explanations about the origins of a ritual are irrelevant to appreciating its meaning and elucidates his understanding of rituals, which involves seeing “internal relations” and “formal connections.” The upshots of the account for work in anthropology are discussed. (shrink)

The paper focuses on the complex relations between aesthetics and phenomenology as they show themselves within the core locus of their interplay—the realm of the visible and the invisible. To do so, the paper examines a specific case study, a Rembrandt painting—A Woman Bathing in a Stream (1654)—through which the discussion illuminates the interconnected and inseparable relationship between aesthetics and phenomenology in relation to Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the visible and the invisible. The reading addresses both dimensions of the (...) visible: the essential intersubjective aspect of life and its complex visual representation in art. To achieve this, the paper first explores Merleau-Ponty’s late aesthetic ontology—a phenomenology that perceives the aesthetic realm, particularly the visible domain, as originating from human corporeal existence, thereby redefining the act of seeing and the concepts of the visible and the invisible; I show the manner in which invisible elements permeate our visual experience in the Rembrandt painting and in seeing as such. The paper also reveals the unique ontological role of painting and the painter in unveiling the aesthetic world, and in guiding the philosopher toward a vision that true philosophy—phenomenology—must embrace. The paper concludes by rethinking the significance of aesthetics, and especially, the arts, to phenomenological thought, and the necessity of phenomenology to aesthetic thought. (shrink)

: Is Peirce's esthetic relevant for the philosophy of art—what is usually referred to today as aesthetics? At first glance Peirce's idiosyncratic esthetic seems quite unconcerned with issues of art. Yet a careful examination reveals that this is not the case. Thus, rather than attempt to "apply" Peirce's views to some aspect of the practice or the theory of art (e.g., creativity, historiography of art, style, genre), or even to a particular work of art, my intention is to examine (...) how art fits into Peirce's own conception of his esthetic theory. The argument is divided into two parts. In the first section I present Peirce's conception of esthetics in the context of the normative sciences. I argue that esthetics connects with various strands of Peirce's philosophy, most notably his cosmology, his agapasm and with the way that important aspects of them hang together around the principle of abduction and the corresponding notion insight. In the second section, I consider in what way art may be said to be admirable, to contribute to the summum bonum. I try to show that Peirce's esthetic suggests that what attracts us towards art is first and foremost a semeiotic quality qua quality of mind or quality of Thirdness. (shrink)

Resumen: Las reflexiones de la teoría crítica de la sociedad respecto de la diferenciación moderna de la razón le otorgan al arte -y a su experiencia- una singularidad que se presenta bajo un modo de resistencia. Un momento ejemplar de estas indagaciones se expresa en la discusión acerca del concepto de aura para dar cuenta de la diferencia artística. En este escrito nos proponemos reconstruir los aspectos de un concepto crítico de aura estética a partir de la interpretación de su (...) lugar y significación en la teoría social del arte de Theodor Adorno. Para ello revisamos la polémica que sostuvo con Benjamin en torno al carácter pasado del aura; distinguimos los aspectos de la fundamentación del concepto de aura artística en términos de negatividad estética; y, finalmente, extraemos algunas conclusiones en relación con la contribución teórica de este concepto para la crítica de las ideologías estéticas.: The reflections of Critical Theory of society about the modern differentiation of reason, assign to art -and its experience- a singularity which presents itself as a mode of resistance. A paradigmatic moment of this inquiry is the discussion about aura as a key concept to give account of what artistic difference means. In this paper we propose to reconstruct a critical concept of aesthetical aura by means of an interpretation of its place and meaning in Theodor Adorno’s social theory of art. In order to do that, we revise the controversy with Benjamin around the past character of aura; we distinguish the aspects of the foundation of the concept of artistically aura in terms of aesthetical negativity; and, finally, we extract some conclusions in relation to the theoretical contribution of this concept to the critique of aesthetical ideologies. (shrink)

Introductory essay / Peter Jones -- The usefulness of the arts and the humanities : the case of Descartes / Gábor Boros -- Roads of remembrance : the treatment of imagination and memory in Gerard's Essay on genius / Zsolt Komáromy -- Diderot's untimeliness / László Kisbali ; transl. Márton Dornbach -- Melody vs. harmony : Rousseau, or, The aesthetics of vowels / Mária Ludassy ; transl. Zsolt Komáromy -- Judgement and taste : from Shakespeare to Shaftesbury / Ferenc (...) Hörcher -- Lord Shaftesbury's "aesthetic freedom" / Endre Szécsényi -- Why one should imitate the Greeks : on Winckelmann / Sándor Radnóti ; transl. Márton Dornbach -- Beauty or beast, or, Monstrous regiments? : Robertson and Burke on women and the public scene / László Kontler -- The concept of nature and the theodicy problem in the Malebranche-Arnauld-Leibniz debate / Dániel Schmal -- Lessing's anti-candide : between reason and revelation / Krisztina Utasi ; transl. Márton Dornbach. (shrink)

Through a number of examples of environmental interventions, this paper makes the claim that the unauthorised nature of some interventions is an integral part of their aesthetic quality. This does not mean that all such interventions have these qualities - only that the regulation of what can be done where and by whom could endanger the production of a rich seam of aesthetic experience, such as edginess and whimsy, and the aesthetic engagement of artists and the general public with places.

이 글은 미학에 관한 논문이다. 미학 가운데서도 특히 『주역』을 대상으로 하여 『주역』경문과 괘효상에 나타나는 미를 분석하였다. 『주역』은 그래도 기본적으로는 글로 쓰인 문헌이기 때문에 본 논문에서는 『주역』의 경문經文과 전문傳文에 나타나는 문예미를 분석하였다. 그 결과 『주역』의 경문은 시적 요소가 많았음을 밝힌다. 그리고 전문에서는 경문을 설명하고 있는데 이러한 설명은 대부분 효위爻位에 근거하여 설명하고 있다. 그러나 『주역』에서 설명하려고 했던 것은 괘상과 효상이다. 괘상과 효상은 상징적인 것이면서 한편으로 회화나 서예처럼 감상자나 품평자에게 그림을 보고 그림 이면의 이치를 깨닫게 해 준다. 이것은 마치 동양 회화론에서 그림을 해석하는 (...) 것과 같다. 비록 괘상과 효상이 뛰어난 화가가 그린 그림과는 차이가 있어도 그림이 표상하는 바와 괘상이 표상하는 바는 같다고 할 것이다. 사람은 이것을 터득하고 깨달을 수 있다.BR 또한 『주역』은 동양 형이상학의 기반이 되는 책이다. 『주역』의 형이상학에서 문자적으로 의미가 있는 것은 ‘도’와 ‘태극’이라 할 수 있다. 아울러 본 논문에서는 ‘음양’을 형이상학으로 취급하였다. 일반적으로 음양은 ‘기氣’로 이해되나 『주역』의 형이상학적 요소 가운데 중요한 부분은 차지하는 것이 ‘생생불이生生不已’이므로 생생을 현실적인 모습에서 바라보지 않고 우주가 지닌 본체적 모습으로 바라본 것이다. 아울러 우주의 ‘생생불이’의 관점에서 다시 인간을 바라보면서 인간은 최고의 창조품이자 결정품으로 보았다. 이 때문에 『주역』은 우주 본체를 해석하는 것이었으나, 다시 미감으로 인성을 해석하고자 하였다. 그러나 이 작업은 매우 정미하고 난해하므로 우선 대체적인 안을 세워 놓고 다음의 연구 과제로 돌렸다. (shrink)

Introduction. The conditions of comfortable communication in society have served as the basis for a person’s desire for self-expression, which makes up the necessary impression about him, i.e., to an image-representation, which has received the definition of image. The purpose of the image is to enter the practical sphere in order to achieve status in society. The aesthetic and psychological basis of the image expresses visual manifestations of the spiritual health of the individual, brings unconscious images to a conscious level. (...) Mastering the mechanism of effective impact of appearance is relevant, because it is necessary for everyone, especially political leaders. Methods. To carry out the analysis, the following methods are used: comparative-historical, comprehending the formation of an image in the historical process; historical-aesthetic, giving an idea of the image in retrospect; psychological, determining the psychological and emotional patterns of the image; associative, allowing to understand the perception of the politician by the public at an unconscious level; semiotic, referring to the iconic system of costume as part of the image. From a sociological point of view, the needs of society for a certain type of politician are revealed. The purpose of the article is to study the features of building an image and the role of its aesthetic aspect in the overall assessment of the image of a leader, using the example of the images of V. V. Putin, V. F. Zhirinovsky, V. I. Matvienko, to analyze the possibility of strengthening a positive image constructed consciously and purposefully. Scientific novelty of the research. As a result of analyzing the image of the leaders of the past and present, the fundamental difference between the artistic image of vestigial fashion and the unique design of the public image has been revealed. The definition of the essence of the image of a politician is formulated. The assessment of using military and secular costumes in creating the image of the head of the country is given. Results. Studies of the image of politicians show that the most successful leader is the one with natural charisma that needs appropriate visual design. The visual image has a symbolism that can act as a means of legitimizing political power. The necessity of further study of the sign-symbolic system of appearance is revealed. Conclusions. The image of the head of the country, created by aesthetic means, embodies an image that is understandable to his voters, capable of causing positive emotions of others on an uncon- scious level, raising the authority of its owner and trust in him. In a broad sense, the image gives an idea of an entire epoch and a change in civilizational paradigms. (shrink)

Based on a Lived Experience Description written by an experienced nurse in Denmark, this article offers an ontological and existential‐phenomenological exploration of aesthetic dimensions of excellence in nursing. In the research of Patricia Benner and colleagues, excellence in nursing is described as a matter of intuitive pattern recognition based on clinical experience and narrative understanding. In this article, and based on phenomenological reflections and philosophical inspirations from the Danish philosopher Dorthe Jørgensen and the French philosopher Maurice Merleau‐Ponty, I suggest an (...) extended understanding of excellence in nursing, and I argue that the work and research of Benner seem to overlook ontological and aesthetic aspects of excellence in nursing. This article argues that aesthetic aspects of excellence in nursing can be comprehended as moments where nurses sense a surplus of meaning and moments where the nurse and the patient share and are subjected to communal and unfolding life phenomena. Aesthetic dimensions of being in nursing can, from an ontological approach, best be described as similar to the way human beings listen to a piece of music or to how artists try to give a voice to the world: as a resonant way of being and becoming within the moment. (shrink)

The book is a second volume of the project, which is focused on a systematic examination of aesthetic experience by the unification of philosophical and cognitive-scientific approaches to beauty and aesthetic experience. This volume is focused on the analysis of selected aspects of aesthetic experience, especially on methodological problems and aspects of philosophical and scientific research, the question of the complementarity and compatibility of methods, and needs to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research. Authors of the chapters are considering about (...) diverse areas of perception of beauty, e.g.: pleasure by face perception; the synchronicity by music; the problems of musical chills; the psychosomatic unity of dance; or the problem of development of aesthetic appreciation. (shrink)

This is an interdisciplinary study of what is cognitively going on when we interpret, respresent, or evaluate cultural entities, works of art included. In addition, the role of interpretation in experience and in cultural objects is elucidated from a cognitive point of view. The book relies on theories of action, perception, possible worlds, modalities, intentionality. cognition, and brain research, and it contains anumber of case studies. The book ptovides some new insights into some much-discussed problems related to interpretation.

The anthropologist James Frazer investigates the ritual gesture in search of be- liefs about the physical world by the native. Wittgenstein considers this a case of aspect- blindness, one that is disruptive of the conditions for understanding the native’s most triv- ial gestures. Unable to cast his glance from within the native situation, this methodological view from nowhere has an arresting effect on experience – in particular, the experience of speaking. This interruption is to be examined by means of a (...) thought experiment. Then, through the interplay of the concepts of Spirit and Aspect, a philosophical tool is described to assess the problem that can also serve as practical guide back to ordinary experience. The next step is to examine this way out in a particularly sensitive kind of experience of meaning: the aesthetic experience, also seen as a ritual. We conclude by alluding to a pos- sibly mutual illumination between aesthetic experience, translation studies and a Cavellian take on ordinary language. (shrink)

The main ideas in this paper can be summarized in the following three points. (1) Openness, indeterminacy, and exemplarity are elements of both Kant's aesthetics and Wittgenstein's notion of language games. (2) These elements are essential to what makes a person. They are necessary in processes of decision-making and in the development of a person. (3) Such aspects were in the center of discussion during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe, especially in the tradition of the so-called (...) Bildungsroman. Unfortunately, they tend to be forgotten nowadays. (shrink)

Leni Riefenstahl meets Charlie Chaplin : aesthetics of the Third Reich -- Artphilosophical themes -- Dead Kennedys and Black Flags : artpolitics of punk -- Prehistory of political aesthetics -- Red, gold, black, and green : black nationalist aesthetics -- Arthistorical themes -- Political power and transcendental geometry : Republican classicism in early America.

Evidence affirms that aesthetic engagement patterns our movements, often with us barely aware. This invites an examination of pre-reflective engagement within cities and also aesthetic experience as a form of the pre-reflective. The invitation is amplified because design has political implications. For instance, it can draw people in or exclude them by establishing implicitly recognized public-private boundaries. The Value Sensitive Design school, which holds that artifacts embody ethical and political values, stresses some of this. But while emphasizing that design embodies (...) implicit values, research in this field lacks sustained attention to largely unconscious background biases or values, rooted in cultural attitudes and personal interests, that lead theorists and planners—often too narrowly—to promote design organized around specific values such as defensibility. In examining these points, I draw on J. J. Gibson, a central figure for some writing on aesthetics and cities, and whom pragmatists and phenomenologists in turn influenced. Taking a cue from pragmatists in particular, I argue Gibson’s perceptual theory of affordances entails a theory of values, meaning our perception and therewith movements are inherently value-based. I advocate design that accounts for relatively constantly held values such as safety, while also handling the vast pluralism that exists and not crushing the aesthetic vibrancy of city life. (shrink)

This book is an introduction to psychological aesthetics for art educators, art therapists, psychoanalysts, artists, and art lovers.

This book is about aesthetic processes and play from the perspectives of psychologists, philosophers, and semiologists. They explore the underlying processes from many viewpoints, including the prehistoric roots of language and art; the historical evolution of artistic, literary, and musical styles; the structure of artworks from both gestalt and semiotic perspectives; the biological and psychological processes underlying production and appreciation; the appeal of sentimental art; emotional responses to art and other aesthetic forms; personality in relation to artistic style; the testing (...) and measurement of art-related skills; the relations between social life and literary understanding; literature in relation to media; as well as neurobiological, developmental and individual growth perspectives on play activity. (shrink)

Fashion is an important source for shedding light on modern aesthetic experience. Not only does fashion represent concrete aesthetic quality that reveals the spirit of the times, but it also epitomizes the social relations in liaison with the aesthetic taste of the times. This essay discusses the relationship between Georg Simmel’s sociological aesthetics and Hegel’s dialectics, demonstrates fashion as a domain in which subject-object relations are operative, and shows how fashion hypostatizes the dialectical relations between mind and body and (...) between the individual and the collective while connecting subject and object. (shrink)

How aesthetics—understood as a more encompassing framework for human activity—might become the primary discourse for political and social engagement. These essays make the case for a reignited understanding of aesthetics—one that casts aesthetics not as illusory, subjective, or superficial, but as a more encompassing framework for human activity. Such an aesthetics, the contributors suggest, could become the primary discourse for political and social engagement. Departing from the “critical” stance of twentieth-century artists and theorists who embraced a (...) counter-aesthetic framework for political engagement, this book documents how a broader understanding of aesthetics can offer insights into our relationships not only with objects, spaces, environments, and ecologies, but also with each other and the political structures in which we are all enmeshed. The contributors—philosophers, media theorists, artists, curators, writers and architects including such notable figures as Jacques Rancière, Graham Harman, and Elaine Scarry—build a compelling framework for a new aesthetic discourse. The book opens with a conversation in which Rancière tells the volume's editor, Mark Foster Gage, that the aesthetic is “about the experience of a common world.” The essays following discuss such topics as the perception of reality; abstraction in ethics, epistemology, and aesthetics as the “first philosophy”; Afrofuturism; Xenofeminism; philosophical realism; the productive force of alienation; and the unbearable lightness of current creative discourse. Contributors Mark Foster Gage, Jacques Rancière, Elaine Scarry, Graham Harman, Timothy Morton, Ferda Kolatan, Adam Fure, Michael Young, Nettrice R. Gaskins, Roger Rothman, Diann Bauer, Matt Shaw, Albena Yaneva, Brett Mommersteeg, Lydia Kallipoliti, Ariane Lourie Harrison, Rhett Russo, Peggy Deamer, Caroline Picard Matt Shaw, Managing Editor. (shrink)

The multiple aesthetic representations of the sacred throughout our troubled human history account for the variety of the ways the sacred has been appropriated as a regulatory moral and civilizing force by groups and large communities of peoples. Nature has always been part of the everyday life of human beings, and the natural environment has been perceived as a medium for the manifestation of the sacred and as a source of moral behavior. Because of this, humans developed a peculiar relationship (...) with nature, imbued with both fear and fascination, which Bernard Williams has called “promethean fear,” “a fear of taking too lightly or inconsiderately our relations to nature,” with the potential of nourishing “our... (shrink)

In Search of Beauty in Music A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO MUSICAL ESTHETICS by CARL E. SEASHORE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND DEAN EMERITUS OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, ...

The Aesthetic Brain takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey addressing fundamental questions about aesthetics and art. Using neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, Chatterjee shows how beauty, pleasure, and art are grounded biologically, and offers explanations for why beauty, pleasure, and art exist at all.

The monograph is focused on the subjectivity of aesthetic experience and the problem of rational interpretation of emotionality. The text studies why does an aesthetic experience exist, what is its content and what is its informational role and structure? Has beauty any cognitive value? Can we analyse beauty? In what sense we can think about the information content of aesthetic experience? The second topic of the book is a cognitive role of emotionality and its research. Why we have emotions? What (...) can they tell us about yourself and about the world? The methodology of the study is designed as a phenomenological research of subjective experience that is combined with the newest results in Cognitive science research. --Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This article examines the phenomenon of atmosphere in the aesthetics of the German philosopher Gernot Böhme. It explores the connection between his ideas and those of Hermann Schmitz’s “New Phenomenology” and Martin Heidegger’s ontology. The atmosphere is analyzed through Schmitz’s concepts: the space of human corporeality, and the categories of “contraction” (Enge) and “expansion” (Weite)). Key points of Schmitz’s phenomenology are identified: the absolute space of the felt body, its independence from geometric space; the description of the body's dynamics (...) through bodily impulses and vectors of “contraction” (Enge) and “expansion” (Weite)); the critique of the internal arrangement of feelings; the understanding of feelings and atmospheres as external “forces.” Böhme illustrates illustrated this concepts using the example of the sublime atmosphere in the temple space. Through light and shadow, silence and lines, the atmosphere of the sublime is created. It captivates, astonishes, and directs human corporeality towards spaciousness, providing a perception of the dynamics of human corporeality. Böhme’s description of the atmosphere includes the problem of the subject perceiving the atmosphere. The phenomenon of atmosphere is understood based on the concepts of mood and disposition of a person, derived from Martin Heidegger’s concept of Dasein. Mood is revealed in two ways: as the attunement, the tonality of a person’s own place, and as the tonality of the places in which they reside. It is concluded that perceiving the atmosphere means perceiving the mutual attunement between a person and the world. The final point is the analysis of the concept of ecstasies in Böhme’s aesthetics. The transition from Schmitz’s concept of semi-things to the problem of ecstasies is shown. Ecstasies in Böhme’s aesthetics describe a special space where various qualities of things spread. The radiance of light, the filling of the space with color, the play of light and shadow, the weight of sound—these qualities create an atmosphere. The mood of the place is created by the manifestation of these things, their “resonance,” giving a special aesthetic to the space. It is concluded that the perception of atmosphere includes: the perception of the place of the living body, affected by the mood of the place; the perception of one’s own relationship to the place, the world, and oneself; the perception of how the place reveals its own resonance and mood through the ecstatic properties of things and their ability to fill the entire space. (shrink)

The Politics of Aesthetics rethinks the relation between art and politics, reclaiming 'aesthetics' from its current narrow confines to reveal its significance ...

In _The Subject of Aesthetics_ Tone Roald develops a psychology of art based on people’s descriptions of their own engagement with visual art.